If we want to understand why President Obama has broken yet another major campaign promise and ordered America’s return to Iraq, the key question to ask is: Why now?

After all, the Islamic State in Syria/al-Sham (ISIS) has been scoring dramatic military gains for months, and yet in spite of that the President stubbornly resisted calls by Republican hawks to give Baghdad air cover. Nine-hundred special forces were sent in to "train" the Iraqis and coordinate strategy, but Obama insisted they would not go into combat and air strikes were considered out of the question. No matter how loudly John McCain yelped, and his Pekinese who goes by the name Lindsey Graham barked, the White House was adamant about not re-engaging.

So what happened?

The cover story we are being given is that 40,000 members of the formerly obscure
Yazidi sect were being threatened with "genocide" by ISIS, which is
supposedly demanding they convert to Islam or die. Now the hapless Yazidis have
fled to Mount Singar – their historic home, in any event – and are without food
and water. It was yet another "humanitarian catastrophe," a matter
of life and death: we had to act or we’d be responsible for "genocide."

The problem with this narrative is that ISIS has been beheading its way through
Iraq all these months with nary a peep from our vaunted "humanitarians."
And yet suddenly, we are told, it was imperative that we act. Why? Are the Yazidis
so special that their suffering counts for more than the Shi’ites and others
who have faced the very same predicament – conversion or death – in northern,
central, and eastern Iraq? Surely not.

So we return to the original question: why now? The answer is the central axiom of real estate: location, location, location. ISIS was getting close to Kurdistan, and eyeing Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The feisty Kurds have taken advantage of the chaos spread by ISIS to seize disputed Kirkuk, which the Kurds consider their Jerusalem. Aside from the symbolic
value of this prize, Kirkuk is also the site of oil fields worth a substantial
amount of moolah. But before we segue into the familiar mantra about how this
is a "war for oil," let’s step back and look at the larger picture
– because it’s really much worse than that.

The Iraqi state is collapsing: as I and other opponents of US intervention
predicted at the beginning of the Iraq war, the overthrow of the Ba’athist regime
meant that the Iraqi Humpty-Dumpty
was broken – and could never be put back together again. Since Iraq was never
a real country to begin with – its borders were drawn by the British
Foreign Office in the wake of World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire – it was inevitable that the country would fall apart without the Ba’athist
terror that held it together. Ba’athism represented the only viable Iraqi nationalist
ideology, and when the neocons got their hands around Iraq’s throat the first
thing they did was launch a "de-Ba’athifation" campaign, purging the
military, dispersing the bureaucracy, and "cleansing" the remnants
of the educational system – effectively sounding the death knell of Iraq.

We have seen this process of dissolution dramatized in the antics surrounding the fate of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the widely-hated leader of the coalition Shi’ite-dominated government who is being blamed for the rise of ISIS. According to the White House, Maliki so alienated every other faction in Iraq – notably the Sunnis – that an effective national government is impossible. Washington is doing its best to oust him, but he’s stubbornly hanging on – in large part because he knows he probably won’t survive his ouster.

Yet blaming Maliki is just a way of masking Iraq’s post-invasion predicament: as a nation, rather than just a name on a map, Iraq has ceased to exist.

Three separate and distinct nations are emerging from the rubble: a southern
Shi’ite state, a northern Sunni entity, and Kurdistan. This was the unacknowledged
goal of those who agitated for the US invasion to begin with: to atomize Iraq,
and, in short, create
chaos. Looking at Iraq today, one recalls George W. Bush declaring "Mission
accomplished!" – and suddenly the real nature of that mission is all too
apparent.

Yet the actual goal, and the public version of our war aims – an Iraq "whole and free" – were contradictory: in public the Bush administration was committed to the unity of Iraq, and demands by the Kurds for an independent state were brushed aside. In spite of this, however, the actual policy had been to encourage the Kurds at every turn.

Since 1991 a no-fly zone had been maintained over Kurdistan and the Kurds enjoyed de facto independence, a condition they took full advantage of. Under the American occupation authority, they had still been denied Kirkuk, but for all intents and purposes Kurdistan has functioned as an independent state.

One measure of their de facto independence has been their growing ties to Israel:
the vaunted pershmerga, as their fighting force is called, have been
trained by the Israelis,
and no doubt arms have been flowing into the Kurdish arsenal via Tel Aviv. After
the Kurdish seizure of Kirkuk the first oil shipment from the KRG to a foreign
market made a beeline
to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared that
Kurdish
independence is "inevitable."

In gaining their one and only ally in the region, and – by the way – securing
a reliable energy source on good terms – Israel is claiming the spoils of war.
It is also realizing, in the breakup of Iraq, one of its longstanding goals:
the humbling of an historical enemy and the extension of Israeli power into
the very heart of the Middle East. "From
the Nile to the Euphrates" is the phrase that defines the geographical
bounds of the "promised land," according to their interpretation of
the Bible, and it is a concept central to the Zionist dream.

In the Kurds the Israelis have aligned with a people very like their own, both in history and temperament: not that temperament is inherent, but that history has a way of imprinting itself on the human personality. Both the Kurds and the Jews were a people without a homeland, subjected to oppression in the form of military conquest, murderous pogroms, and a constant struggle just to survive against great odds.

In the case of Israel, this tragic saga led directly to the success of the Zionist movement among Jews worldwide and the creation of Israel – the militaristic, expansionist, increasingly authoritarian Sparta we see today.

In the case of the Kurds, we see a similar result, albeit on a lesser scale: a militant, militarized, intensely nationalistic population alienated from its Arab neighbors and obsessed with an ongoing sense of grievance. And while Kurdistan, like Israel, apes the forms of democracy, the reality is essentially authoritarian – with an extra dollop of thuggishness thrown in for good measure.

Kurdistan is lorded over by the Barzani clan, a.k.a. the Kurdish Democratic
Party (KDP) – which is anything but democratic. They share power with the other
clan-based party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which has its base
of support in urban centers like Sulaymaniyah, and which was given control of
national offices as compensation for the KDP’s hegemony on the home front.

Relations between these two clans – the Barzanis and the Talabanis – have not
always been so cordial. The KDP and the ostensibly Marxist PUK were at each
others’ throats in the latter part of the 1970s, and even after war broke out
between Iraq and Iran the internal power struggle continued: they didn’t agree
to a united military front against Saddam Hussein until 1986,
when the Kurds rose up. The rebellion didn’t last, however, as the KDP ended
the armed struggle and sought accommodation with Baghdad. The PUK considered
this a sellout, and tensions between the two continued to rise.

However, a fresh external threat to Saddam’s rule – the first Gulf war – was the occasion for another Kurdish rising, which ended – after a horrific slaughter – in at least partial success. In the war’s wake a no-fly zone was established by the Anglo-American victors and the Kurdish Regional Government was established: elections yielded a virtual tie between the KDP and the PUK – and this set the stage for a vicious civil war.

It was a war over who would control
the black market in oil: Baghdad cut a deal with the Barzani clan to set
up a clandestine route to transport oil, an arrangement that enriched the KDP
leaders – and left the PUK out in the cold. The civil war was brutal: thousands
were killed and many more expelled from their homes. The Talabani clan turned
to Iran for support, and the KDP turned to Saddam. In conjunction with the Iraqi
Republican Guards, Barzani’s troops besieged Erbil and took it, executing hundreds.
The internecine slaughter continued until the Turks invaded in response to the
presence of yet another faction in Kurdistan: the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK),
whose presence was tolerated by the KRG and which had been waging a terrorist
campaign in Turkey, targeting civilians and hitting tourist areas. The Turkish
incursion led to a temporary truce, but this was soon broken and fighting resumed.
The bloodletting didn’t stop until Washington took the two parties in
hand and guaranteed Kurdish "autonomy" – in reality, de facto
independence – in return for a pledge to keep Saddam (and Iran) out of the KRG’s
territory.

Over the years the PUK has been in decline and the KDP has established what
is for
all intents and purposes a dictatorship. The KDP’s intelligence agency,
known as Parastin,
keeps tabs on dissident political activity and routinely kidnaps and jails critics
of the regime. In 2005, Dr.
Kamal Qadir was arrested for "insulting" Masoud Barzani, the KRG
top honcho, jailed, and tortured. His "crime"? Exposing the rampant
corruption which enriches the ruling party, and the Barzani family in particular.
The KRG is essentially a criminal cartel, which hands out cash and privileges
to its supporters – and outright repression to its opponents.

The Barzani dictatorship was greatly enhanced by the "liberation" of Iraq: in 2005, the Washington Postexposed the complicity of US occupation forces in the KRG’s systematic abduction and torture of political prisoners:

"Police and security units, forces led by Kurdish political parties
and backed by the U.S. military, have abducted hundreds of minority Arabs and
Turkmens in this intensely volatile city and spirited them to prisons in Kurdish-held
northern Iraq, according to US and Iraqi officials, government documents and
families of the victims.

"Seized off the streets of Kirkuk or in joint U.S.-Iraqi raids, the
men have been transferred secretly and in violation of Iraqi law to prisons
in the Kurdish cities of Irbil and Sulaymaniyah, sometimes with the knowledge
of US forces. The detainees, including merchants, members of tribal families
and soldiers, have often remained missing for months; some have been tortured,
according to released prisoners and the Kirkuk police chief.

"A confidential State Department cable, obtained by The Washington
Post and addressed to the White House, Pentagon and US Embassy in Baghdad, said
the ‘extra-judicial detentions’ were part of a ‘concerted and widespread initiative’
by Kurdish political parties ‘to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly
provocative manner.’

"… The cable indicated that the problem extended to Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city and the main city in the north, and regions near the Kurdish-controlled border with Turkey."

The systematic suppression
of Arabs, Turkmen,
Assyrians, and
other minorities is carried out by the KRG as a matter of course – and will
doubtless increase as the fanatically nationalistic Kurds lay claim to Kirkuk,
which they claim as the Kurdish "Jerusalem, and which is home to many non-Kurds.

The danger posed by the Kurds to the peace of the region lies in the fact that Kurdish nationalists envision a "Greater Kurdistan" encompassing territory presently occupied by Turkey (more than a third of the country), a good chunk of Syria, 20 percent of Iran, and even reaching into Armenia (!). “A greater Kurdistan is the dream of every Kurd. But for now we want to set up a state in this country,” says KDP member of Parliament Dr. Farsat Sofi.

"For now" – those are ominous words to Kurdistan’s neighbors, which greatly fear the explosive potential of restive native Kurdish populations seeking union with a newly-independent Kurdish state on their borders.

The fuse of Kurdish independence has been lit: it’s only a matter of time before the bomb goes off. And when it does, it will atomize the rest of the region, limning Iraq’s fate.

This suits the Kurds’ ally, Israel, just fine – because that was the
plan all along. Atomize the Arab states, turn them into ineffectual statelets
fighting each other, while Israel gobbles up the occupied territories and expels
its Arab population. "Greater Israel" and "Greater Kurdistan"
– these two projects are being accomplished in tandem, with the latter making
the former much more likely.

Another benefit to Israel in an independent Kurdistan is the establishment
of an Israeli base directly on Iran’s border: a base from which espionage, sabotage,
and outright invasion can be launched. And the prospect of Kurdish independence
represents a direct threat to the unity of Iran, which has its own potentially
rebellious Kurdish minority to deal with.

While Washington formally adheres to its support for a united Iraq, and supposedly
opposes Kurdish independence – while supporting autonomy – this position is
becoming increasingly untenable because it is essentially a fiction. Kurdistan
has been a de facto sovereign state since the establishment of the no-fly
zone some fifteen years ago. The Obama administration’s implicit recognition
of this fact-on-the-ground was underscored by the decision to bomb ISIS as soon
as the soldiers of the Caliphate got too close to Erbil.

Yes, John
Judis is right to say that oil is a factor, but this is just a portion of
the truth. The larger truth encompasses both military and domestic political
reasons – Washington wants Kurdistan as a possible launching site for a military
campaign against Iran if such becomes (in their view) necessary. And then there
are the politics of the matter.

Israel, for its part, is practically demanding independence for Kurdistan, and the Israel lobby in this country is beating the drums. Washington – not known for resisting Israeli demands – is slowly but surely caving in to the Israel lobby and abandoning its insistence on the unity of Iraq. The escalation of this abandonment was signaled by the President’s recent statement that the US military effort in Iraq isn’t just a bomb-and-go affair but "will take some time." Yes, it will take more than a few drone strikes to shield Kurdistan from ISIS. The Kurds – and, standing behind them, the Israelis – seem to have won the day in Washington, but just to make sure the Kurds have hired the well-connected Patton Boggs public relations firm to press its case for a prolonged American campaign, with a budget in the millions.

Deepening US military involvement in Iraq has little if anything to do with
the plight of the Yazidis, whose own relations with the KRG have been problematic at best: this is a "humanitarian" pretext for the
hiving off of Kurdistan from Iraq and the establishment of a base friendly to
the US and Israel. It is a geopolitical maneuver that augurs a much greater
conflict than the one we are seeing play out in Iraq at the moment. Militant
Kurdish ultra-nationalism unleashed on the Middle East will prove a scourge
for the entire region, one that could end in a war involving all the major players.

Washington and Tel Aviv are playing with fire – a fire, furthermore, that is
being deliberately set. Arsonists are on the loose in the most volatile part
of the world, and no one should be surprised by the subsequent conflagration.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

You can check out my Twitter feed by going here.
But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often
made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.

Sounds like we have interesting times ahead for us. One wonders what will happen when the projects of the Greater Kurdistan, the greater israel, the second Ottoman empire, and the Great Caliphate all collide, in part because the US has been supporting them all?

Still since we are talking about energy, oil, gas, etc. one just can't ignore the interests of the energy transnationals, the energy middle men crooks, and their influence over Washington. We've seen in the past that America's alliances and friendships with x or y group or tough guy only go so far and those quickly come undone as the US gives priority to what it thinks really matters: israel and the energy mafia's uninhibited access to resources.

ISIS and ISIL are CIA/Mossad trained terrorists. The reason the zionist stooge bombed now is to protect the Israel pawns, the Kurdish terrorists who suppose to be at the service of zionist racist. People of the region hate them all and will wipe them off the map of the region soon. Death to enemy of Muslims, imperalism and zionist racists.

USG is simply black mailing the Iraqi government, if you want our help to destroy, well destroy is a very strong word, ISIS then Maliki have to step down and are placed with a Sunni government created and supported by the Turkish Erdogan government and Barzani and the Saudis and Qatari regimes. Such regime doesn't need to have any ideology nor acting as democracy, but to accept that Iraq being divided as where Saudis barbarians have created their caliphate regime. Which in reality the Saudis regime is not that far from caliphate system from 500ac, is just that they have enough money to fly their privet jet to WDC, other wise same sheeeeeeeet different name.

USG/Barack Hussein Obama created the ISIS and still supporting it by not bombing the hell out of them, Joe Biden/the sucre president regime from the us Democratic Party had a plan back in 2003 to divid Iraq, ISIS is the Saudis and Qatar's illegitimate sons, they approve of whatever ISIS stands for and Joe Biden regime/Barack Hussein Obama just helping out.

The entirety of US policy is to spread chaos and failed states deliberately. Operation Clean Break was first implemented by the WMD hoax in Iraq and has spread to the rest of the Middle East. Clean-Break was just an operational version of the Bernard Lewis Plan.

Likewise, Russia has been targeted for regime change by Lewis' counterpart, Z. Brzezinski. Meanwhile, encirclement and confrontation can be found in the Asian Pivot.

The USG has essentially lit the fuse on WWIII across the globe, including major industrial powers with lethal nuclear arsenals. The senile Europeans have gone along with this suicide pact, as have most Republicans, save for the libertarian wing. We're running out of time — and running out of luck people– to change course.

I give the entire Middle East a few years, tops, before it completely implodes taking every national border- including Israel's (whatever that happens to be at the time)- down with it. Egypt and the African nations may be spared, but that central swath of simmering warfare is going to boil over and woe be unto the person who chooses his side unwisely (even though the 'right' side may change from day to day).

Kurdish leaders have bought the promises of the West for decades. Their leaders have been enriched and their people have been screwed. They are the Americans of the Middle East.

Of course, America and Israel are not concerned whether they live or die. The use of them to manipulate and destabilize the pencil drawn 'states' of the post-WWI era is the very reason why they have no state of their own–like their neighbors–to mismanage.

ISIS is no more Islamic than I am…Its leaders sing the song and do the dance…but, their actions are no more Islamic than those of the rabbins of Israel. Their leaders were trained by the West–many in Jordan, in 2012–and they run their mouths a lot about what they are going to do to those 'wascally Americans and Israelis'…but, when it comes down to the actual doing…like the Americans and Israelis…they are more at home murdering civilians and trashing private property and cultural heritage…(Psst! Wanna buy some sweet Monsanto GMO seeds?)

The stench of Babylon is upon all of the 'revolutionary' movements of recent history and beyond… Lenin found shelter amongst the Calvinist usurers of Switzerland…Marx wrote for a Capitalist rag… Trotsky was given shelter, money and a trip back to help destroy our 'ally'–Russia–by his fellow tribalists–the Jewish usurers of New York…a city that sports a statue of Ishtar in its harbor… Throughout the 20th century revolutionaries have found a home in America and the UK and overthrown tyrants find a home in Europe or the US while their people groan under debt burdens laid upon them by said tyrants. The New York gangs White House poodle dog released al-Baghdadi and he promptly went to work helping to run ISIS with his Saudi friends. Jordan's piss ant kinglet allowed the use of his kingdom to train ISIS murderers. Turkey supports them…McCain's photo-op with the bastards is notorious…yet here he comes again!…let's go kick their ass!!

ISIS is a construct to justify US involvement in wars for oil, resources and Israel. The majority of its funding comes from the Saudis…who, conveniently, never figure as an enemy in our war 'against' terrorism…or a target in our loud decades long fraudulent search for energy independence. Maliki was getting cozy with the Russians…bought Russian arms…He was already cozy with the Iranians…what's a girl to do? Why, throw herself into the arms of the secularist-Saddamites? Heaven forbid!…they'd invite the Russians back and then where would she be? No, she has to sing the old tune 'Camp Town Crazies, Won't you come out tonight'…and, Voila! ISIS is there to justify US entry…thus keeping the Russians out, Maliki weak and Kurdistan oil safe and under control.

Obama breaking a promise is not news…Obama keeping one, would be. Meanwhile, this so-called 'Muslim' by the Israel worshipping sods at World Nut Daily is standing by while Israel murders and maims the children of Islam by the score…One would hope this would finally put to rest this magazine and internet site's attempt to draw conservatives into the orbit of the Israeli offal pit. Obama's "intelligence failure" with regard to ISIS is as convenient as the much bemoaned 'failure' with regard to 9-11…both operations served to justify our war for Oil, the Dollar, Resources and Israel.

8/12/14 addendum: At antiwar.com we learn that NATO will defend Turkey from the 'allied' created monster–ISIS–that Turkey has already been helping. Our own fearless leader has essentially admitted that there are 'no moderate rebels' in America's fight against Assad and Civilization…which means we were knowingly supplying McCain's Cannibal Army…and, that all of the song and dance in the media about parsing Assad's opponents into good cannibals and bad cannibals was just that– song and dance. ISIS will do what the US, Israel and EU want it to do–get general involvement of the West in Mesopotamia so that Israel can continue to ravage Gaza…as Netanyahu said he planned to do several times in 2001…after all, he bragged, 'America was easy for him to manipulate.' (noted on a recording of this swine made at the time linked at WRH) Of course, that is a virtual given, as America's Congress proved to be a gaggle of seals, standing up and clapping their flippers in the hopes of bloody-fish treats from AIPAC…when this body disgraced itself, first by having the animal speak to them and then by shamelessly applauding him.

While it is interesting to ponder the 'real' interests, strategic aims and powers behind various conflicts, It is undeniable that ISIS are murdering barbarians who are slaughtering or enslaving all who disagree with them or are of a different ethnicity or religious belief. Rescuing the Yazidis and te Christians of Northern Iraq would be a good humanitarian outcome, for example. Kurdish leaders may not be shining examples of probity by Western standards, and the weakening of regional powers has long been an Israeli aim, but that doesn't mean the Kurds should not have their own state, an aim which has seemed just to me for the last 40 years.

In other words, analysis and understanding is important, but sometimes difficult choices in an imperfect world have top be made when it comes to actions and consequences.

Another example. The UK (where I am) has accepted a small number of seriously injured children from Gaza for treatment in our hospitals. A cheap political stunt? Of course. Hypocritical? Probably. But should we demand these children do not receive medical treatment? I think not.

Thanks, Justin for putting light on a strange entity – Kurdistan. I have always known that Turkey was very opposed to the national interests of the Kurds, but I didn't know why. Further complicating any clarity are these new junk tossed into the mix like the Yazidis (?) and their sacred mountain that contains no food or water. This latest bombing of Iraq was no surprise – we love to bomb those people just like the Israelis love to shed Palestinian blood. But, damned, if I can figure why the Kurds and the Israelis would be allies. No-one can trust the Israelis – the whole World, except for the boobs running America knows that. Help us out by writing more on this craziness.

waging even better or much better politics in a two- or tri-folk country than maliki was reportedly waging in tri-folk iraq hadn't worked out as desired.
year '88 proved that communist politics in yugoslavia since '45 also was a dismal failure in their efforts to teach its nations good brotherly manners.

Speach of an traitor "Arab girl" at the brothel house called Harvard where many war criminals such as Samantha power, Payam Akhavan, George Bush, and many more are trained. It is very disgusting and disturbing. It shows how agents are brain washed and trained to KILL.http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2014/08/an-arab-ame…

how about inter-continental, inter-racial, intraracial, intracontinental, inter-religious [religion being a branch of politics, also], intrareligious, interideological, and international politics!
how is it waged?
well, gaza, iraq, ukraine tells us what intercontinental and inter-racial politics does [shemites being a subrace].
could we say that these politics are worse than ever or just appear worse than ever, but only because we have now more destructive weapons than before.
in other words, the basic THINKING of those rule us and/or hold near 90% to 100% of political power, may have not changed a bit.
but ultimate cause of what we do to each other on political level being the THINKING.
let's study it!!!!!

*sigh* If the Establishment ever decides to discredit this site, ZSD and others of his kind are giving them, however unwittingly, loads of talking points.

I usually basically agree with the columnists, but the loons and haters who show up in the comment threads would prevent me from ever linking to Antiwar on other sites, for fear of the damage to my reputation, if not for the saving fact that I don't have to use my real name.

"greater kurdistan"? i thought such a yearning applies only to [con]federal republics or countries. kurds do not yet possess even an autonomy let alone a state.
as for projected israeli aims against iran, it did not even defeat hizbollah in its last war against it an did not yet defeat gazans, either.
easy whacking arabs, palestinians now and then seems to be over….

I'm speechless. How on earth do you manage to keep up with all of this intrigue? I didn't think for a second that the American govt were in it for the humanitarianism, but if all of this is even half accurate, that's a new low in cynical public relations exercises.

once an ethnicity arabs in iraq and syria fuses with or melts in a 'religion' [branch of politics] such an ethnicity deems itself sunni first and syrian and iraqi second or even third.
mind you, sunnis may consist of more than one ethnicity, but, it seems, being muslim and obeying koran [in fact, not only koran, but also ulema] comes first in value.

iraqis, syrians as muslims largely or solely are doubly dangerous, trifod more mean/brutal than being just an iraqi/syrian.

this analyses is also valid for ethnicities that think of themselves as first of all jews and only thereafter a german, pole, latvian, or a human is also trifold more deluded, brutal, etc., than if they would consider themselves as humans first of all!
human first and then dad, mother, sister, friend, russian……..
one reverses this natural and sane order of evaluation and we have hell on earth!
one god for one specie. no 'holy' books. one unified theory for daily living and not hundreds……
let's get rid of all isms….

This is just another steroid enhanced, 110 lb. weakling state backed by Washington that can't keep the nation it is supposed to govern intact. The key steroid being U.S. military power, which Baghdad couldn't do without for long without going the way of Saigon circa 1975. The good news for Baghdad today is that the U.S. is now more capable than ever of helping the 110 lb. weakling state in Baghdad without an army of occupation on the ground. It can be done from the air by remote controlled planes. It won't be long and the partition of Libya is likely to be on the table very soon as well now that the "government" in Tripoli probably doesn't even class as a 110 lb. weakling state, as Libya appears headed down the road taken by Somalia in the '90's or Lebanon circa 1975-90.

Sectarian based partitions in modern times have not been implemented without enormous displacement and bloodshed. Difficult to image the creation of Kurdistan not resembling the partitions of both Palestine and India in the late '40's in terms of displacement and bloodshed. This is why imperialism loves drawing up borders and doing sectarian partitions. These policies creates deadly instability for the colonized and retards the social development of the nations victimized by the policies.

If Israel is so cozy with the Kurds, why aren't THEY the ones delivering air strikes on ISIS? Where are the IDF troops bolstering the Kurd defenders? I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any Merkavas rolling out to lay the smackdown on third-hand T-55's. Pity, too- the IDF hasn't had a good broken-field battle since '73… all they've had to shoot at since then has been penned-up Gazans and West Bankers, except for that brief failed incursion into Lebanon in '06. Maybe Israel is afraid they'll get their butts handed to them if they take on a real enemy again?

[…] the ruins of Iraq, and it is doing so in order to 1) establish an independent Kurdish state, 2) appease the Israelis, who have a longstanding alliance with Erbil, and 3) satisfy the demands of the War Party here at […]

[…] Christians already cleansed from Iraq under US occupation. Might it have something to do with oil? Israel? Neocons striking back? Yes, yes, and yes! I am on the Tom Woods Show today to discuss this and […]

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative, and writes a monthly column for Chronicles. He is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement [Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000], and An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard [Prometheus Books, 2000].